Thursday, April 29, 2010

This is the kinda place that only exists in the South, where regulations regarding personal safety are just looser than in other places in the good ole US of A. Alligator Adventure has approximately 1400 alligators in a zoo-like venue located in the middle of tourist row. That's right, I said approximately because they don't know the exact number. It's an alligator free-for-all literally next door to the House of Blues.

Not just alligators, but tortoises . . .

And they even have baby lemurs. BABY LEMURS, PEOPLE! Here's a pic of a momma lemur nursing her baby lemur. *swoon*

Audrey was less impressed than her mom and dad. She was even blase about the possibility of being eaten by large alligator sculpture.

Afterwards we headed to some-such-bar for some frozen you-know-whats.

And then to Joe's Crab Shack 'cause Alex wanted a bucket of crabs.

Hey, where's the baby?

Zoinks! What baby?

The crab pot really began to tax Alex's strength.

But he perservered!

In the middle of this glorious meal, the restaurant sound system suddenly blared, "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and the entire waitstaff performed "The Cotton-Eyed Joe" for our viewing pleasure. Heaven, I was in Heaven, I tell you.

Later that day Alex was in own personal Heaven after he caught a fish. He will tell you about catching this fish dozens of time without the least provocation.

Our last evening in North Myrtle Beach ended with a rousing game of bocce. The younger Millers retained their championship title.

Audrey helped soothe Grandpa Miller's diminished bocce ego.

And the grand finale: shrimp and grits!

Thanks so much Grandpa and Grandma Miller for having us! We had a wonderful time!

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

On Day Three North Myrtle Beach greeted us with a torrential rain storm. Ha! Ha! Ha! You can't get rid of us that easy, NMB! We shrugged off the rain and hit the local pool. Audrey donned her itsy-bitsy yellow polka-dot one-piece. (I have issues with baby bikinis, issues which everyone else thinks are weird).

Audrey's first time in a pool!

She's a buoyant baby!

Later that day Grandpa and Grandma Miller baby-sat Audrey so Me and the Mister could have an elegant evening out on the town. Alex took me to Billy the Kid's for an oyster and clam roast.

Holy Shellfish, Batman! We got clammed!

Now, kids, I would like to take a moment to show you the dangers of iPhoto. Here is my attempt at reducing my red-eye:

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Last week the New Haven Millers flew down to South Carolina to visit the North Myrtle Beach Millers. Audrey did awesome during the two-hour drive down to La Guardia Airport (Her first time in NYC! Let's give it up for Queens!). And the flight itself wasn't too bad. She wasn't the most annoying child on the flight, which I count as a success.

We had arrived in Myrtle Beach too late to really do anything except scarf down some of Grandma Miller's Magnificent Meatloaf. But the next day was filled with all sorts of adventures!

Day Two

Audrey's first time at the beach!

Her first time in the ocean!

We went to Mrs. Fish for some, uh, fish, and the owner took possibly the worst photo of all time.

Monday, April 26, 2010

I first met Alex's parents during a long weekend visit. Alex warned me on the drive down that his parents would be taking lots of pictures of the two of us. I was appalled. Historically, the Sterud women aren't too fond of having their picture taken. There seems to be a rather serious discrepancy between the image we see in the mirror and the image we see reflected in a photo. Alex told me it was useless to resist his father's rampant camera clicking and I quickly learned it was easier to submit than to flee.

Little did I know at the time that Alex has inherited his father's incessant photo-taking gene. He'll take a picture no matter how disinterested the subject.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Last week my dearest friend Madeleine flew in to New Haven to inspect the Great Miller Experiment #1.

(In my head this blog post also contains photos from our days together when we were Fordham grad students so my readers could see that we hadn't changed a bit since those studious, industrious days. Unfortunately, all those photos are tucked away on the hard drive, which, in turn, is tucked away in a drawer somewhere. Rest assured, however, that the days of yore were exactly the visit last week: filled with lullabies, strolls in the park, and tequila).

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The littlest Miller has moved from the bland conformity of organic brown rice cereal to the wild diversity of Stop and Shop veggies. We began the veggie adventure with some sweet potatoes for our little sweet potato.

They were a big hit!

Stay tuned as the Millers continue the solid experiment with carrots, peas, and tomorrow, avacado!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Yesterday I forgot my camera at our local watering hole, which means I'm having difficulty capturing Audrey in all of her amazing Easter dress amazingness. Earlier today we walked back over to the bar in hopes of retrieving our camera, but it was closed, so not only do we still not have a camera, but we had to walk another two blocks before we found a bar that was open and I could thirst my quench with a festive mimosa (accompanied with nachos and chocolate cake).

Grandma Sterud (rightly) intuited that her oldest daughter might not have it together enough to have proper Easter attire for the lil' bunny, so she sent not one, but two, adorable outfits to help Audrey celebrate the arrival of all things spring.

Unfortunately Outfit #1 and all its frothy glory could only be captured with my computer camera:

and, special Easter bonus, with the following latest Miller montage! (For those of you only reading for the clothes, the Easter dress appears towards the end).

Please feel free to discuss in the comments the appropriateness of using the song Honky Tonk Woman.